Wireless communication technology has evolved greatly over the recent years. Wireless communication networks can include a variety of different network technologies. Furthermore, one wireless communication network may comprise underused spectrum that another wireless communication network can utilize on a secondary basis. Traditionally, wireless communication technology allows for systems to co-exist independently while sharing a common resource, such as spectrum. However, traditional wireless communication systems do not coordinate the use of the spectrum. Interoperability of systems using the same spectrum can be resolved, for example, through cooperative operation among network devices, e.g., synchronization and spatial scheduling can be employed to mitigate interference associated with network operation.
In situations in which two dissimilar network solutions/technologies are co-located such as a network installed some time ago at a fixed geographic location that can serve as a host for a newly installed second network, the systems do not coordinate the use of critical system resources such as spectrum. Furthermore, the first system may be the primary licensed system that was allocated the spectrum and the second system may be licensed to use the spectrum on a secondary basis; namely, allowed to use the spectrum provided that harmful interference does not degrade the performance of the primary licensed system. However, current technology generally does not provide an efficient and advantageous way for maintaining proper synchronization and critical time-aligned operations between the secondary the host/primary networks for mitigating harmful interference to the host/primary network. For example, current technologies generally do not provide a system in which the operation of a secondary network, i.e., a network that co-exists with an existing system, includes yielding spectrum right-of-way when spectrum scavenged by the secondary network is “recalled” by the host/primary network.
Therefore a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.